The Triad
by KH2083
Summary: Haruka nad Michiru pay a visit in a mountain hotel. Instead of relax, they find there new, powerful enemy and also a new friend.
1. Chapter 1

**The Triad**

World: Sailor Moon

Time: After the end of the series

Main Characters: Haruka and Michiru

**Chapter 1**

The night was unusually hot and sultry and huge silver circle of the Moon ruled on the starry sky. A social life was progressing around the hotel named the "Glitter of the Stars" in spite of a very late hour. The couple of elderly men were standing on the verandah of the boarding house looking at the night sky. They were gazing at stars or perhaps they were waiting for the arrival of UFO or other extraordinary phenomenon which could end the boredom of their holidays. The night watchman was sitting on the bench finishing smoking his thirtieth cigarette. Inside the building it was comparatively quiet; the night life lasted only in a small café. An unusually calm atmosphere ruled inside it. Quiet sounds of the instrumental version of "Morning Moon" song were flowing from loudspeakers hidden somewhere in the room. Bored young barmaid was sitting behind the counter sawing her nails. Two colorfully dressed holiday-makers were playing billiards and some bearded man was swinging in the corner. He probable drunk too much beer during his stay in the hotel. Two girls were sitting at one of the tables: Haruka Tenou and Michiru Kaiou. First of them was dressed in trousers and yellow blouse with short sleeves and the second one was wearing blue dress. She looked as beautiful as usual.

"I'm feeling uncomfortable all the time, Haruka" She said looking into the mirror.

"There's nothing to worry about. Our only mission is to check the suspicious area out. Setsuna said that some strange anomalies of the space-time continuum had appeared several kilometers from here. Our task is their examination. In my opinion it's nothing big, false alarm or something which we will deal with quickly". When Haruka touched Michiru's hair a smile had appeared on her face for a few seconds. Later she became more serious again. She removed her friend's hand from her forehead and returned to the conversation.

"If only everything was so easy. After all you know that Setsuna is dead serious. She is never making alerts for no reasons. And this place… It gives me the chills. It's so sleepy, too calm here". She looked at the floor trying to avoid the eye contact with her companion.

"Are you suggesting that it is calm before a storm?" Haruka asked.

"Yes". Michiru replied and then she smiled lightly again.

"Let us come outside. You must go to the bed. We're moving into the way forward tomorrow. We must build our strength up ". The blonde smiled to the friend. She put her hands on her shoulder and they both left the café, leaving behind the people who had finished their billiard and drunk the golden liquor from the pints. The bearded man fell asleep in the corner of the room and it was evident that the pair of colorfully dressed people was going to join him. The bored barmaid was looking at girls sawing the nails on her second hand. All people were slowly put to sleep by the music coming from the loudspeakers. Outside, the old couple fed up with waiting for aliens went to the bed and the watchman had disappeared, he probable went for a walk to see if everything was ok in the neighborhood or just wanted to smoke the next cigarette. There was already nobody on balconies and the entire building was engulfed in a warm sleep.

Rays of the morning Sun forced their way through the pane of a tiny room waking Michiru up. The night was so hot, that girl was wearing only green pants and a bra. She rolled to the other side of the bed. She didn't want to get up, because it was still very early, too early to wake up in her free day. She was lying motionless in this position for a few minutes, then she threw the duvet off herself and decided to get up. Absorbing the hot sun rays, she sat on the bed. She rubbed eyes using left hand, stretched her body and yawned. The noise of the river flowing in a front of the hotel building filled her with longing to her element – the sea. No, the noise of the sea is quite different than river's - She thought. She noticed that her friend had already got up. She came to the cupboard and took the watch in order to make sure what time it was.

"6:48, so early. Why is she no longer sleeping?" She thought correcting her emerald hair. After a moment Haruka appeared in the room holding the jacket.

"Get dressed. There is a beautiful weather. We're setting off on a journey". She proposed. Michiru came up to the wardrobe with a view to find some clothes.

"We wish ourselves only a bit of free time, we cannot waste it. We'll talk..." The blonde continued. "Haruka, we aren't on holidays". Michiru protested. The friend came up to her, embraced her around the waist and cuddled up to her body.

"Relax. Feel at least for a moment as an ordinary girl". She said. She moved her face close to her emerald hair, grasped them and toyed with them for a moment. In the end she moved them away to one side and kissed the girl on her slender neck. Michiru turned around searching for the mouth of the blonde, she embraced her with her slim arms. Haruka touched cheeks of her partner and then she kissed her mouth closing her eyes. Lovers decided not to go out from the room and to stay with each other a little longer. They left the hotel accommodation together and set off on the way forward. The morning air overfilled with a mist was playing with hair of girls who were speeding in the car along one of the largest roads within that region of the country. There was nobody in the nearest vicinity so Haruka could ride as fast as she liked. Her friend was satisfied; she felt that the car outran the wind. However she became a bit worried. She didn't wish an accident or a trouble with the police. She asked Haruka to slow down.

"Are you afraid that we'll take off?" Haruka laughed.

"No, you're supposed to save yourself. We'll need your strength during the next longer stop." Michiru replied with a giggle. There was no building in the neighborhood and both sides of the road were covered by coniferous forests. The blonde spotted small forest clearing adjoining to the road and stopped the car there. She took her girlfriend by hand, trying to take her deep into the forest.

"What are you going to do?" Michiru asked gladly. Haruka didn't answer leading her deeper into the thicket. After a moment of walk they both reached a mountain stream hidden among trees. The hum of mountain's stream and birds singing overfilled the surroundings and the mist hovering low above the grass brought relief after hot summer days. The blonde caught her friend around the waist.

"Haruka, we didn't arrive here for fun. Leave me alone". Michiru broke free.

"Do you want a war with me? Haruka pressed green haired girl to one of the biggest trees with a fast move.

"How can you. We have the mission to accomplish". Michiru announced.

"Forget about it for a five minutes". Haruka kissed her hair, then cheeks and in the end her very mouth. Michiru embraced her neck strongly. She felt happy, pleasant shiver passed through her body. Haruka pressed her to the tree strongly and her hands turned toward buttocks of the friend. Michiru forgot that she wasn't in her bedroom and decided to let the tide of delight kidnap her and her lover to the deep ocean of desire. Girls stayed in a fiery hug for the longer moment.

There was a smell of approaching heat in the air. Haruka and Michiru was walking hand by hand through the wooden footbridge to the other side of the river. They were listening to swooshing of the wind blowing among branches of all trees. After a few minutes girls found themselves in another clearing, much bigger than the one on which they had stopped previously. Miscellaneous herbs and flowers covered the area. The place was beautiful and colorful, full of magical charm. The mist hovering low above the grass added mystery to the place, it caused that the forest clearing seemed to be from some fairy tale, from magic land, from a dream... A singing of birds was heard from everywhere. The place was contrasted with a dark, humid and gloomy forest which grew close by. Girls decided to enjoy eyes with this view, however it turned out quickly that they hadn't been there alone. Rustle was heard first by Michiru. Her companion reacted instinctively; she clenched fists looking at the direction from which sounds came. She spotted in the fog a figure looming from the forest. She felt unpleasant shiver.

"Prepare Michiru". The blonde whispered.

"Wait." Her companion stopped her with a gesture of hand. Approaching silhouette started picking more recognizable shapes up. Mysterious shape turned out to be an old, fat woman dressed in grey worn out dress. She had long, grey hair. She was raked up and her hands combed grass in quest for something. After a few moves of hands, old woman stopped, squatted and got down to gather herbs into darned bag she was carrying. She had ugly, creased and dirty face but she didn't seem ominous. She seemed not to notice girls, she was consumed entirely by collecting plants. Haruka calmed down. Michiru took her hand.

"Let us walk away, it's time for us to go. There is no reason to disturb this woman". Girls came back to the car. The old woman broke away from her job. She raised the head looking at two friends walking away. She smiled and in her eyes a look of contentment appeared.

Girls stopped by a gas station in order to buy something to eat. The sun already went up quite high above the horizon and summer heat was felt everywhere around. Apart from one building of the station there were no larger constructions in the neighborhood and the ones which were standing here and there, seemed ancient and abandoned. There were only some wooden houses built in the style in which nobody builds today, unless inside open-air ethnographic museums and temples. Michiru sat down on a stone wall surrounding the building. She was wearing sun hat because heat became unbearable. Haruka went inside the store to do the shopping. Michiru was listening intently to sounds of the nature coming from the nearby meadow: cicadas, crickets, birds. She realized that someone's shadow covered her.

"Yes?" She asked looking at the stranger. Fat person clothes as great as a mountain dressed in a working was standing before her. He had face sweaty from the heat and effort. He was most probably the owner of this place and one of its few employees.

"Good day, can I help you with something?" He asked with a hoarse voice.

"It isn't necessary, my friend already dealt with everything". Green haired girl replied smiling to him.

"Actually there is something you could help me with. Can I ask about something?" She added. The fat person was really glad. He wanted to use every minute of her company.

"Yes?"

"Can you say something about these surroundings? Are there any bigger towns here, where is it possible to stay in a hotel?" The fat person thought for a moment. He hawked and then answered.

"In the most immediate surroundings is exactly like you can see..." He did a gesture with the hand of embracing the entire neighborhood.

"Only peasants live here, they've been cultivating their earth for many years. We don't see many tourists here. Our people don't like when anything is disturbing their peace, therefore do not expect help from them. There are many big towns to the South from here in which old temples attract people from all cities. Your place should be in those surroundings". Michiru got up from the wall, she looked at the forest in the distance. A slight puff of the wind was playing with her hair.

"We arrived from there with my friend. Because we prefer quiet, less populated places... in order to stay in a solitude". The fat person hawked again. He scratched his belly.

"There is one hotel in these surroundings. I don't know how it can make money at such a remote place. At one time I could see it coming back from the walk all over forests. It's big and modern, with the beautiful garden, but looking at it from the other side you can see an older and destroyed building".

"How can both be true?" Michiru asked.

"I don't have the slightest idea! I'm telling the truth!" Fat man answered her honestly.

"And I don't visit these places often. People from there are strange. You can't even talk to them". Fat person leaned over the girl.

"I don't recommend you visit in such a place!"

"Why?" The girl was really surprised with the conversation but she decided not to show this.

"People disappear there! Tourists like you who want to walk along the mountain paths. They disappear after going inside that hotel… Only people like I, strangers who they met one time in a life, remember their faces. We remember people who were devoured by that hotel…"

Michiru felt less and less secure in this conversation. She wanted to end it as soon as possible. "Michiru! We're going!" Haruka's voice reached her in time.

"I'm sorry. I must go." The girl stopped the chat and headed to the car passing by the fat person.

"Let us go." She asked Haruka firmly. Girls set off on the way forward. Fat man screamed behind the receding car.

"Do not go there! There is an evil lurking inside! If you disappear your face will be haunting me in nightmares!" He was shouting and swearing trying to warn her but the green haired girl didn't listen to his words.

After a dozen minutes girls found themselves on the road surrounded by thick forest. The humid smell of resin and decaying plants annoyed Michiru's nose, filling her with contradictory emotions, strange feelings, readiness to act, alternated by calmness. She didn't want to mention this to Haruka, because she wasn't sure what these jump of moods meant. She never did false alarms, Haruka didn't like it. Looking at wet shadows of trees protruding above the route, she was holding hands in her bag, gently stroking surface of the mirror with finger tips. It always calmed her; it always let her concentrate on something. The blonde looked at the route, but simultaneously she was peeking at her companion, because she didn't like something in her behavior. She knew her more than her own body and no game could cause that Michiru hide something from her. In spite of it she decided to keep all questions and doubts to herself. Black minivan was standing by the road on a clearing on which some ancient tree with a hole in the trunk grew and its owners were squirming by it. The tall man with a longer blonde hair was searching for something on the map. A girl dressed in short brown trousers and green sleeveless shirt was looking at him. She was saying something to him all the time and he was hushing her up. Other boy with black hair and glasses was sitting few strides farther from the pair looking at some books - probably guides to the surroundings. Haruka and Michiru were driving close to them. The blonde slowed down and said commentary about the strangers. At the same time, eyes of her companion met with eyes of the person, who girls overlooked earlier. A girl dressed completely in black was standing near the road. She had long, black and curly hair and brown eyes. There was something unusual in them which caused that although Michiru was in a contact with them through the fraction of the moment, she felt kind of being enslaved, hypnotized by their depth.

"Stop, Haruka, now." She said firmly with a chill in her every word. Her lover was surprised, but she carried out the request. Green haired girl was looking at the eyes of the stranger for a moment not being able to break a contact with her gaze full of hidden mystery, but in the end, she shook the hypnosis off. The black-haired girl ran up to Haruka's car. She smiled looking casually, if the earlier effect of her eyes was only imagined by Michiru.

"Thanks for stopping girls. I'm sorry, but we have a bit of a problem here. We're searching for the certain place, but we probably got lost".

"We'll try to examine maps which you have". Michiru replied and left the car.

"Right, Haruka?"

"Yes..." The blonde answered reluctantly. Green haired girl looked at her mysteriously.

"Come on... don't be turned with hostility... she realized that you're a woman... she has good eyes…"

The black-haired girl fixed her eyes on Michiru's figure as if she noticed something wrong in her. After a moment she came back to her friends. Haruka got off the car, but stayed together with her companion in a distance of few steps from strangers.

"Are you sure that everything is all right? I don't like something in this black-haired girl". The blonde was alarmed.

"Take it easy... I ordered you to stop exactly because of her. Something is really puzzling in her and after all examining what really is happening in these surroundings is our task". Neptune quietly explained her plan to Haruka.

"Do I understand you right, we must approach them this way? Be close to your friends but even closer to the enemies?" Uranus answered her gladly. Michiru looked at her with a cold eyes.

"Why are you thinking of them as enemies? We didn't even introduce ourselves".

"Right". The blonde put her hands on the shoulder of the girl and came up to strangers. Black haired girl smiled. Haruka looked at her brown eyes and drowned in them for a moment, exactly just like Michiru a few minutes earlier. The brown depth of irises was attracting like swamp, quick sands with their own event horizon beyond which it was possible to move only in one direction, into the very center of the dark soul of the stranger. She closed her eyes to break the contact with the girl and quickly returned to reality.

"My name is Sakiko Hayasu, and these are Ichiban Iwata, Ruri Fumiya and Kazusa Otome". New 'friend' of Michiru introduced her companions pointing at the black-haired boy in glasses, ginger girl with curly hair and the tall boy leaning over the map laid out on the hood of the car.

"Good day". Ichiban said to girls.

"Hello." Ruri waved her hand.

"I welcome you." Kazusa mumbled.

"Michiru Kaiou." The girl introduced herself and then she added.

"And she is Haruka Tenou".

"Look at these maps Haruka, you're better at finding the right road than me". She pushed the blonde in Kazusa's direction whispering to her ears:

"Entertain them with some conversation. I'll watch them". She walked away from the gathered people. Everyone seemed normal to her, but Sakiko was different. Strange coolness and feeling of a mystery was emanating from her. The girl felt Michiru's eyesight on herself and she looked at her. Neptune let the hypnotic look surprise her again. She thought that the eyes were glittering like some miniature galaxy was residing inside them.

"Beautiful..." She thought. She gazed at the girl's face, hair and silhouette.

"Beautiful eyes, small nose and mouth, slight body and pale complexion. She is excellent; I'm having a feeling that she is too excellent". She was wondering who her new friend was and why her eyes were attractive like a magnet. They chatted with themselves a bit, they talked about usual unimportant matters but after having learnt from Haruka that in the vicinity a hotel is located they all decided to go there.

After a short time travelers reached a small village located in the mountains. An utter silence prevailed around, not even forest creatures were heard, there was no wind, smallest leaflets of nearby trees were completely still. Villagers were walking along the street doing their everyday activities. They looked more like elements of the landscape than thinking individuals. Haruka and Michiru passed by them first. They were ignoring cars, it looked like their engine's noise didn't come inside their deaf ears.

"Terrifying silence, don't you think?" Neptune announced examining the surroundings. She tried to look a the face of some passerby by everybody was turning the head in the other direction.

"Incredible... but I don't think that such place belongs to the most crowded." Uranus replied. Michiru shook her head. She pointed at the trees growing nearby.

"That's not the point. It's unnatural here; did you realize that when we entered the village even the singing of birds stopped?" Michiru stated her observation.

"Indeed, I'm feeling the chills". Green haired girl took her mirror out of the bag. She started watching it closely. She was silent for a longer moment.

"And what? Did you find some anomaly?" Impatient Haruka asked.

"Nothing... this place is clean..." The girl closed her eyes.

"Or protected by a strong magic." She added.

The car belonging to the new acquaintances of girls was slowly moving along the road. Kazusa was driving, Ichiban was sitting beside him and the girls were seated on back seats. Ruri was gazing through a window pane at hills covered with forests.

"It's so beautiful here... We'll have a dream holidays. And this fresh air… It'll be fantastic here..." Kazusa smiled seeing the joy of his friend. Ichiban looked at passers-by roaming around there and back.

"Damn, they look like some zombies, don't you think?" He showed one of them going right by the road.

"You're imaging something... You've simply never seen peasants before, living all the time in Tokyo." Kazusa answered. Ruri smiled, but after a moment she grew more serious.

"I don't know whether you also have such a feeling, but since we've come to this small town I'm having a feeling that the time came to a standstill. It's so calm here, like in some dream". She announced.

"Or on the graveyard…" Sakiko replied looking through the window. Both cars were parked by the small hotel inside which everyone decided to stay. They didn't have much choice because it was the only building of that kind in these surroundings. Ruri came out of the car first, the others joined her quickly.

"Ah! It's good to stretch legs!" She turned around.

"It's so nice here!"

The hotel was quite big, two-storey building standing near a dark forest. Its walls were white and clean, probably freshly renovated and every window of rooms was equipped with a little balcony. The building contrasted very much with wooden, breaking down houses which girls encountered during their journey. In a front of the building a little park with evenly trimmed lawn, benches and a few quite big trees was located. A marble sculpture portraying a horse standing on two legs was standing close by.

"It's so clean here, it's really strange in a hole like this". Kazusa was surprised.

"Everything seems good here." Haruka noticed.

"Too good…" Sakiko commented quietly.

"Exactly like in some computer game." Ichiban replied. He was looking at Michiru all the time. She liked her at the first sigh.

"Don't worry about it so much. Better let us come inside". Ruri knew how to restore holiday humor. Uranus and Neptune stayed a few steps behind rest of the group.

"Did you feel something?" The blonde girl asked.

"Nothing, place is completely clean." The girl answered. Some old lady stood before girls and glued her eyes hidden behind glasses as thick as bottoms of bottles at them. Haruka eyed her up and down coldly. The woman became confused; she lowered her head and moved ahead of herself.

"Look! Look!" Ruri shouted showing the relief placed above the entry to the hotel.

"What's that? It's disgusting!" Everyone raised their heads up. The sculpture spotted by the girl had shape of some strange monster with three women's heads with sharp teeth and blown hair. Uranus and Neptune looked at each other.

"Chimera." Sakiko replied observing the sculpture.

"Three-headed beast giving bad dreams to people and deluding their hearts to the extermination. Wild beast feeding on souls of her victims. That's what I heard". Sakiko smiled lightly. For a moment silence prevailed, and eyes of everybody were gazing at the strange sculpture. Ruri broke the silence.

"Let us come in already". She proposed.

To everyone's surprise, the inside of the hotel was set up in the western style. At the reception desk a few wicker chairs and a small table with leaflets were found, but apart from that there was no furniture inside. Opposite to the entry, the stairs leading to guest rooms were placed. Near the entry, a passage to the more distant part of the building containing the dining room and the second exit leading to the garden behind the hotel were located.

"There's no reason to wait, we'll bring our luggage". Kazusa notified and patted Ichiban on the back.

"Let us walk! Girls will book rooms for us". Ruri stopped them for a moment.

"There is some café upstairs". She explained pointing at the advertising staying nearby.

"When you carry luggage we'll meet there!" Haruka put her hand on Michiru's shoulder.

"I'll help them and I'll bring ours also". She decided to help.

"Ok." Michiru said and went with other women to look for a cafe. Girls sat down at one of tables close to the entry. Café was small and tight; it looked like the union of a sushi bar with western style café. There was nobody inside apart from the squirming waitress and the fat lady which was stuffing her stomach with a large, ice bomb.

"What a strange place. Somebody could not decide in what style to build it". Ruri shared her observation with girls.

"Like the building was made out of distinct parts." Michiru replied

"Like elements of a jigsaw puzzle?" Ruri asked.

"Rather like the collage. One doesn't fit to the other". Sakiko stated. Boys and Haruka soon found themselves by girls' table.

"This place is really strange. You won't guess what we found in our rooms ." Kazusa said.

"The room which we rented for Sakiko and Ruri is set up in an old-Japanese style, just like inside the temple. However our and Haruka and Michiru's rooms are made in the western style. You know: beds, bedside tables, you don't feel that you're in Japan's village".

"This means that the prettiest one is for us, right?" Ruri started laughing.

"Yeah, and yours has a beautiful view on the forest. Sakiko, you'll be delighted". Kazusa completed her sentence. Ichiban didn't say a word; he was looking at Michiru all the time. Haruka noticed this. She gazed at him coldly.

"Do you have some problem?" She asked him with an anger. After these words, Ichiban turned around nervously. A woman dressed in black appeared in the door. She smiled and then Sakiko noticed her. The mysterious woman had cold aura around her, her breath were like freezing wind foretelling the bad weather. Black haired girl was touched by it and closed her eyes. She started breathing with difficulty.

"Sakiko-chan? What happened? You're terrible pale". She asked her. Black-haired girl didn't answer. Mysterious woman went to the back of the café all the time looking at Sakiko. Michiru noticed the smile on her face. Sakiko clutched her head and quickly rose from the table. She felt terrible chills in every cell of her body. She thought that her head had been in a glass dome, the words of others didn't reach her. She knew that she had to quickly leave the room, not to be in the presence of the woman.

"Sakiko?" Ruri was surprised.

"What's going on?" Kazusa asked.

"I'm sorry. I'm feeling bad. I have to leave now…" She quickly left the café. Silence prevailed for a moment. Ruri broke it first as ever.

"Don't you think that somebody of us... should check what is happening with her?"

"I'll go". Michiru decided. The girl ran out to the corridor. She noticed that the same mysterious, black woman was standing at its second end. She was looking at the girl smiling again. Heart of Neptune started beating more quickly and a goose flesh appeared on her skin. She had to be touched by the same thing as black haired girl previously. She calmed down very quickly, because she knew that she had to find Sakiko. She looked around the corridor and realized that the door of the Ladies was opened slightly. She came there quickly. Black-haired girl was leaning over the washbasin and looking at the mirror. She was very pale and was breathing with difficulty. Sweat drops covered her face. Neptune closed the door behind herself and came up to Sakiko. The girl turned head to her side.

"Leave me alone. Please, leave me alone... I'm feeling very bad..."

"You know something about this place? Am I right?" Michiru asked her harshly.

"Do you know what is happening here?" She added. Sakiko closed her eyes.

"Please. Go away. My head aches and I'm feeling sick... I don't want anybody to see me in such a state..." Michiru was silent for a moment. She wanted to give Sakiko time for calming down, but soon she returned to the conversation.

"Is it that woman? Right? " She asked with a harsh voice. Black-haired girl closed her eyes.

"I felt it a moment ago also. Shiver cold, anxiety". Michiru announced with a gentler voice. Sakiko looked at her. She smiled but still had tears in the eyes. Neptune came up closer to her, rested hands on her shoulders and hugged her.

"Be calm. You must relax every cell of your body. Let the entire energy which was directed against you flow down to the ground. Breathe deeply". Sakiko slowly calmed her own body. She was weakened very much, but she felt better much better than a minute ago.

"I'll tell you more, but I must rest now". She looked at the mirror the last time, corrected her hair and left the toilet together with Michiru. Everyone gathered outside the doors. Neptune came up to Ruri.

"Take care of her. Accompany her to the room and be sure that she rests. We'll see ourselves later". After these words she called Haruka and together with her went to their hotel room.

A night dawned and surroundings of the hotel plunged into darkness. There weren't many guests inside, therefore corridors became entirely empty and the building started looking like abandoned. Haruka, Michiru and their new acquaintances went to their rooms and they individually spend the rest of the evening preparing to a sleep. Haruka was lying on a bed and Michiru was sitting by her. She was looking at the mirror trying to notice something in it.

"All the time nothing..." She explained.

"If not this horrifying silence, I would be ready to think that we made a mistake and this place is completely clean." Haruka said crushing some leaflet advertising the food in the hand.

"You know that it's impossible, besides..." Michiru stopped for a moment.

"This Sakiko... I'm sure that she knows what is happening here… at least partly". She added. Haruka got up and came closer to her friend.

"Sakiko, are you guessing who she can be? Did something happen after you shut with her in the bathroom?"

"Nothing. The girl didn't pretend, she was indeed in a very bad state. I'm not sure what harmed her this way, but it looked like the intentional attack by somebody from this hotel. It surprised me that it was possible to react so firmly to the attack of this type".

"What do you mean?" The blonde was curious.

"This Sakiko is probably in some special way sensitive to the magic. However she's inexperienced, she doesn't know how to defend herself against attacks... perhaps she doesn't even realize who she really is."

"Did you try to use the mirror on her?" Haruka asked.

"Of course not! She was shaking and about to collapse. I could not attack her..." The blonde hugged Michiru.

"That's OK. If she's an enemy she'll reveal herself sooner or later and we'll kill her."

"I don't think that she's an enemy, Haruka. I have a feeling that she can see the real nature of this place". Michiru got up after last sentence and went out to the balcony. The wind blew her hair; she felt the chill of mountain air touching her skin. She fixed her eyes on the blackness of the forest and the lake located close to the hotel, existing silently in the dark lie a surface of some black mirror.

"The night is so unrealistic here. Not even a single sound." She thought.

Sakiko emerged from the bathroom in the room which she booked together with Ruri. She stood in the doorway and called her friend. She was wearing black bathrobe and had a towel on her recently washed hair.

"Ruri, the bathroom is free. You can go to take a bath". The girl ran up to her.

"Great. And what will you do now?"

"I'll go to this garden. I want to breathe a little bit of fresh air".

"Ok, but don't walk away too far. Who knows what kind of perverted old men are lurking here?" Ruri winked at her. Sakiko left the room. She was walking along the corridor and went down a staircase. Darkness surrounding her was calming her, she felt remarkably well in it, like a fish in the water. Calmed and relaxed, she entered the garden. The wind was blowing her hair and black nightdress. The girl took a few steps until at last she found herself nearby the lake. The large silver moon was mirrored in a surface of water. She felt its coldness and moisture filling the surroundings, so important after all day under the Sun's warm and brightness. Black-haired girl smiled and her eyes looked as if silver glitter turned up also inside them. Michiru standing on the balcony noticed her in the darkness.

"That's she. She went to the garden. I'm going there; perhaps I'll manage to talk with her longer".

"I'll go with you". Haruka offered.

"No, she trusts me more. She already opened to me a bit. The presence of somebody else can worry her".

"Okay, okay, do please yourself. But remember: I'll see everything from the balcony". The blonde said joking. Michiru quickly went to the garden lake and approached Sakiko quietly. Despite that Neptune was good at stealth, the raven haired girl sensed her arriving and turned around to see her face. She waited until it when Michiru was pretty close to her.

"It's so beautifully here, right?" She asked. She smiled and Neptune noticed that whatever had caused her to fall ill before, didn't have any lasting effect.

"Yes. But it isn't my element. I definitely prefer embraces of sea waves." Neptune answered her.

"The sea has always horrified me with its largeness and changeability. I prefer something as solid as these mountains and forests surrounding them." Sakiko picked a small pebble up and throw it into the water. Its splash sounded loudly in the silence of night. She looked at the Moon reflected in the water, sky and forest drown in blackness.

"Girl! You're frightening the fish!" She heard someone's voice. She looked at the direction from which it had come and saw a boat with some man. Michiru tried to notice this man by her own eyes also but she couldn't. Surprised and lead by her instincts, she took her mirror out. She noticed the fisherman in the reflection of the lake.

"That's it..., Ok... you are special as I suspected." She thought.

"I'm sorry!" Sakiko shouted. "I didn't want to disturb you".

"I am only fishing here... for many years. I didn't suppose that I would meet the living person in this remote place." The man shouted.

"Remote place? What about the hotel?" She pointed at the direction of the building. The fisherman scratched his bald head.

"Are you calling this ruin a hotel? It can be for you. You most probably arrived here with friends because you want to survive remarkable nights in the vacated building. You watched too much television. You're brave; it's 15 kilometers to the closest inhabited building. But it's not my business... I am only fishing here..." After these last words the man swam away farther disappearing in the darkness. Sakiko was really surprised. She tried to call him again, asked about details, but in a vain. Michiru was alarmed by the entire situation also. The mirror was showing her nothing strange again. The man vanished as quick as he appeared a few minutes ago.

"Who was he? What did he mean by saying that it's the abandoned area?" Neptune asked.

"I don't have a clue! Perhaps he's some lunatic. Maybe I'd better return to my room. You should do it too". Black-haired girl was upset. Michiru wanted to ask her about her health, but she knew that she wouldn't learn anything from her.

Ichiban was walking back and forth. He was muttering something under his breath. Kazusa lying on a bed became nervous. She tolerated his behavior but finally became really ,really upset.

"Calm down for Christ's sake! Somebody wants to sleep here!" The yelled. The boy didn't react.

"You're starting hacking me off seriously. Calm down, I'm advising you!" Long haired boy added.

"I must tell her, I must..." Ichiban whispered. She decided to tell his secret.

"This Michiru we met today. She's as an angel, she has so beautiful eyes, skin, hair... I can't withstand it, her beauty. I must tell her what I feel towards her. I want to dive in her ocean..."

"Did you completely lose your mind?" Kazusa got up. He was sure that he had to calm down the guy, even using a force.

"We know her only half a day. You cannot tell stranger girl something like that. You know nothing about her..." Ichiban was behaving as if he was in a trance.

"I know everything... It's an Angel send for me from the heaven..."

"Stop talking gibberish! What angel? What will she think about you when she hear from you something like that? Besides it's probably a dyke, couldn't you see how she behaved with the second one around?" Ichiban hit Kazusa's face.

"That's a sacrilege!" He shouted.

"I don't need your advice! I'm going to her. I'll tell her about my love!" He left banging the door.

"Go! I hope this dyke will hit you in the face stronger than you hit me!" Kazusa mumbled holding his jaw. Ichiban approached the door of Haruka's room. Suddenly he noticed the light on the second end of the corridor. He came there unsteadily; he entered the room opening the wooden door slightly. His eyes widened with an amazement. He saw Michiru sitting inside the room. She was completely naked and was pointing the hand at the boy invitingly. Ichiban opened his mouth from astonishment, he entered inside hypnotized. The naked girl embraced him whispering something to his ears. and then the door of the room was closed.

Michiru and Sakiko were coming up the stairs. They were tired and wanted to fall asleep. Raven-haired girl staggered suddenly and leaned against the railing. Neptune quickly ran up to her.

"What happened? Do you feel bad?" She asked.

"Something bad happened..." Sakiko whispered, and then she started feeling better. She gently pushed Michiru away and went in the direction of her room. Michiru was standing motionless looking at her, and then decided to come back to Haruka.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

In the next morning, Haruka woke up very early. The semi darkness prevailed beyond the window, because the Sun was still under the horizon. She stretched her back and got up silently enough not to wake her green haired companion up. She went out on the balcony to stretch her body and breathe nice mountains air. The pleasant, warm wind was gently touching her skin. She leaned over the balcony's barrier looking at the nearby forest with the lake enveloped in morning mist. She realized that no sounds of birds and others animals were coming from the forest; the entire neighborhood was plunged in the silence exactly as the day before. The blonde girl was worried by this phenomenon.

Kazusa also woke up early. He was sleepy and his jaw ached, but he could not remember why. He thought that he might hit his head somewhere in the forest during the trip with girls. He looked at the second empty bed in the room. The memory associated with this object was lying somewhere deep inside his awareness. Did somebody sleep in it? He wasn't able to recover this simple fact from his memory. He decided to leave the room and go to the corridor, to walk a bit and clean his mind from unnecessary thoughts. He looked at the bed for the last time and then thought about forgetting somebody appeared in his mind again. Not tormenting himself with strange things, he wiped his face with a hand and left the room. He knocked the door to the room in which Ruri and Sakiko stayed. He knew that it was early morning hour, but he hoped that Ruri had already got up; he remembered that she had it in the habit. He wanted to talk with her about strange feeling of emptiness she had been feeling since the morning. He waited for a longer moment. The girl opened the door just when he was going to walk away.

"Hi."

"Hello. Why are you here so early in the morning?" - Ruri was surprised.

"I wanted to see whether you're an early bird." the boy said

"I'm, I just made a coffee for myself."

"Can I come in? I want to talk with you."

"Maybe not now, you would rouse Sakiko. You know, she can spend the entire night looking at the Moon, but it's very hard for her to get up. She's sleeping now like a child." The girl said being very dissatisfied that the boy had to leave.

"In that case, see you at the breakfast." Kazusa said goodbye to her friend and came back to his room.

Michiru woke up much later that the rest of her travelling companions. She rubbed her eyes and sat down on the bed, being sleepy. She looked at the mirror lying on her pillow and sighed seeing that her hair was messed up after the sleep. Her partner wasn't in the room. She started looking all around and heard the noise of water in the bathroom. Haruka was taking a shower, she thought. The door of the bathroom was opened, so the girl decided to go inside. She quietly came up to the cabin in which the blonde was standing. Haruka heard that somebody was approaching her in spite of noisy water pouring down her body. She noticed green hair and turned the water off. Michiru moved the curtains away. She saw her girl naked, with wet hair from which water was dripping.

"Hello Michiru. Did you miss me so greatly?" The blonde asked

"Is it nice to occupy the bathroom? You don't have to worry about your hair, look at mine..." Haruka touched her head very gently. She bent over her and kissed her lips.

"I like this hair; you're so natural now..." she said.

"Natural?" The blonde touched her nightdress.

"You'll wet me." Green haired girl protested.

"You'd better remove it." Michiru took the nightdress off. She stepped inside the shower naked. Haruka hugged her.

"Now will we wash this hair?" The blonde asked holding hands in hair of the friend.

"And those also?" She added.

Ruri and Sakiko got dressed quickly; after a few minutes they were ready for the breakfast. The ginger girl stopped by Kazusa's room because she knew that he wanted to talk with her about something important earlier. She knew that the boy would emerge from his room in the near future and it happened immediately. When he closed the door behind himself Sakiko came up to him.

"Kazusa, what's going on with Ichiban? Isn't he going to a breakfast with us?" Eyes of the boy widened from a surprise. He was looking at the girl like at some lunatic.

"Ichiban? I know no Ichiban. I arrived here with two of you and we got to know those two girls, Haruka and Michiru on our way..."

"Ichiban was with us. After all you invited him to this trip. How can you not remember about him?" Sakiko was feeling anxious.

Kazusa got scared by the behavior of his friend. Ruri came up to her and embraced her.

"Sakiko? What happened to you? Who are you talking about? We know no Ichiban. Three of us are on our hike, Kazusa, me and you." Black-haired girl held her tongue. She knew that something had been wrong with her friends. They forgot a friend who always was with them on their travels. Not knowing the reason, she decided not to bring this topic up again. She wanted to observe them a little longer.

"I'm sorry. I must have dreamt about all of this. After all you know how realistic my dreams are." She quickly thought the answer up. The entire group headed toward the restaurant. Ruri stopped, and then turned around like looking for something.

"I remember the name Ichiban. But I can't remember the face."

Haruka and Michiru joined their new acquaintances in the restaurant. Michiru was wearing green, sleeveless dress; her girlfriend was dressed like the day before. The same waitress was working in the canteen as in the café, and a fat woman who girls could see the day before was sitting by the table standing in the corner of the room. She was eating something again. Haruka started the conversation with Kazusa and Ruri. Michiru sat down by Sakiko. Black-haired girl seemed very tense to her, as if she was thinking about something which had worried her.

"Sakiko... how are you today?"

"Better, thanks. I think that I got used to the atmosphere of this place. Apparently, it's possible to gain the resistance to everything..." She left the eyesight and became sad. Michiru wanted to raise her spirit.

"Will we go to the town today? Perhaps we'll find something interesting to buy?"

"I want to." Saki replied with a forced smile. She looked at the table and returned to eating the breakfast.

"Where is your friend?" Michiru asked. Black haired girl's eyes widened with a surprise. She stopped eating.

"You remember him..." She quietly whispered. Kazusa and Ruri finished their breakfast. They headed for the exit. Haruka also got up but her partner gripped her hand.

"Where are you going?"

"Kazusa's going to the car; I'll also want to check what's with ours." Michiru and Sakiko stayed by the table alone. Obese woman rolled by them. She went to the kitchen asking for the next portion of a food.

"Michiru..." Black-haired girl started speaking.

"Yes?"

"I must absolutely talk with you, but not here." She looked around like feeling some danger lurking somewhere .

"Meet me at the lake in ten minutes, ok ? There is the only place in which I'm feeling a bit relaxed."

"All right..." Sakiko left the canteen. She looked at Michiru. When their eyes met, Michiru felt as if somebody stuck something very cold into her body. She instinctively put her hands to the pocket of the dress clenching her fist on her transformation's pen. Michiru called Haruka and told her about Sakiko's proposal. She went to the lake alone. The black haired girl was already waiting there for her. She changed her clothes into the black sleeveless shirt and black trousers. The delicate wind was shaking her raven-black hair.

"What did you want to talk about?" Michiru asked her.

"Do you remember that there was a boy with us, whose name was Ichiban?"

"Of course. Why could I forget?" Neptune answered honestly. Sakiko approached her. She stood opposite to her and looked deep inside her eyes.

"Neither Kazusa nor Ruri remembers about him. They claim that they never knew anybody with the name Ichiban. They think that something's wrong with my head and I made him up myself, that I had a vivid dreams about him." Michiru was looking at her face as hypnotized.

"I'm sure that something happened to Ichiban and somebody doesn't want us to learn anything about it."

"In that case, why do we remember him?" Michiru asked trying to provoke the girl.

"I want to learn this from you..." Sakiko touched Michiru's shoulders. She slowly moved her hands along girl's arms stopping on her hands.

"We both felt something strange yesterday afternoon and then in the night... Aren't we the same?"

She asked and her eyes became purple, like some kind of internal brilliance appeared inside them. Michiru decided to ignore it and wait. After a few minutes, Sakiko released her hands. She walked away from her over a distance of a few steps.

"No, you aren't the same as I..." Her eyes were glimmered with tears.

"Sakiko... what did you try to say?" Michiru was really curious.

"You're different from the ordinary people, but in some other way. I sense it inside you, Michiru... But we aren't the same..."

Neptune approached her and this time she caught her hands.

"What do you mean, Sakiko? Who are you? What do you know about this place? What is its connection with Ichiban's disappearing?"

"You want the answers but you won't tell me who you are and what you learnt about this place." Michiru was silent for a moment. She knew that the girl was right, the secrets were not going to help build a trust between women. But the was not permitted to tell about her sailor senshi's secret.

"I cannot, I'm sorry Sakiko." Black-haired girl sat down on the rock sticking out of grass.

"I don't know why but I can sense and see things which are imperceptible for others. As a little girl I was able to notice strange beings and events happening around me. At the beginning everyone thought that I had rich imagination and nobody believed me. But later when I became an adult..."

Sakiko stopped her speech. She took a deep breath.

"You don't know how it's like... when they put you to a mental hospital. They poison you with medicines which strip the perceptivity of the truth from you." Michiru sat down by her companion.

"As a matter of fact my past is unimportant. I got to know Kazusa and Ruri a year ago, but the fact that two months ago I dreamed that something had happened in this place is most important. Something dragged me here and when the occasion of the hike to these surroundings presented itself I used it. I thought that traveling here would calm me, but it's quite the opposite. Anxiety has becoming stronger and stronger. Additionally a next secret in the form of you and your friend appeared before me."

She got up from the stone and shook her trousers from a dust.

"This shining symbol on your head it's a sign of the planet Neptune, yes?" Michiru was struck dumb. Only Sailor Senshi were able to see the symbols of the planets.

"I'm going upstairs. I'll eat something; go to the bathroom but later..." She looked at green haired girl. "I hope that your promise of a walk around shops is still standing?" Michiru nodded.

"See you later." Sakiko entered the hotel. Neptune fixed her eyes on the lake on which the wind was creating little wave patterns thinking about what the future could bring her this time.

Michiru was wondering around the hotel's neighborhood. She noticed Kazusa and Ruri running on the stairs and talking about something joyfully. In spite of early time the Sun was showering everything with its hot rays. Neptune covering her face from its light tried to notice her friend. Haruka was standing under one of trees. She asked Michiru to come up to her with a gesture of the hand.

"Damn... you won't believe what we discovered together with Kazusa!"

"What?"

"There are no batteries in our cars, somebody drained air from all tires. Moreover mobile phones are out of order here."

The blonde demonstrated that her phone had been out of range. The Neptune face grew much more serious.

"Now we're sure that something bad is happening here and somebody or something doesn't want us to get out from here. Do you remember that there was one more boy with Sakiko and the rest yesterday?"

"Of course I remember him. I was surprised why he didn't appear so far."

"He disappeared yesterday's night." Sakiko told me that Ruri and Kazusa behaved as if they didn't remember him. I'm sure that something kidnapped him and it erased the memory of his friends in order not to arouse suspicions."

"In that case, damn... why do we remember about him?"

"I don't know, most probably because we're Sailor Senshi and for some reason the abilities of this thing aren't able to defeat our magic."

"In that case how will you explain the fact that Sakiko also remembers him?"

"It's the biggest riddle for me. The girl certainly isn't the ordinary woman. She told me she had the gift of seeing things invisible for others since the birth. But I'm sure that something more is hidden behind it..."

"Maybe she's the reason of what happened here and the boy's disappearance?" Haruka stood up.

"No, certainly not... when I'm talking to her I'm not feeling any malice from her."

"In that case what do you feel by her?" Haruka asked clenching her fists. The last sentence irritated Michiru.

"You're jealous of her!" she shouted,.

"I'm not. I want to protect you from a danger."

"I know when jealousy is starting to speak through you."

"Damn! And what? I have reasons. She's really pretty and you seem to like her companionship."

"Oh well, Haruka..." Michiru lowered her head. After a moment she looked at the blonde harshly.

"We have the mission here. And I won't let your whims spoil it. I'll go with Sakiko to the small town and I'll try to learn more about her. You'll stay here. You'll be observing the hotel."

Neptune quickly walked away in the direction of the building. Haruka stayed under the tree. She held the pebble in her hand and squashed it angrily.

"One false move, you pale goth oddball." She whispered through clenched teeth.

Sakiko was waiting for Michiru on a bend of the road leading to the small town. She was wearing black glasses because the Sun was unbearable. Neptune also put a pair of glasses and additionally sun hat on. Girls started the walk. They took the next bend and found themselves in a front of a stone bridge under which small mountain river was flowing. They stopped on it for a moment in order to look at the stream. Pleasant coolness was coming from the mountain river which was a relief for girls in surroundings flooded with heat. After a few minutes of admiring its crystalline purity women moved forward. After some time they found a big route near the meadows. It went through the hill behind which buildings of the small town were emerging. The heat was incredible, therefore road, despite being not so long, made girls life a misery. Sakiko squatted under the solitary tree with branches giving a bit of a cold shadow. She took the bottle of water out of the bag. She drank from it and gave the flask to Michiru.

"Drink it. A heat is pouring from the sky." Neptune drank from the bottle. Sakiko corrected her hair.

"I hate heat. It tires me up very quickly. And apart from that I cannot sunbathe. My skin doesn't tolerate the Sun."

"I understand. I'm also not very fond of it. I like to protect myself against it in the sea depths..."

"You talked about this in the night. You must swim quite well, you have nice body."

"Some people say that in the pre-existence I was a sea animal."

"And they're probably right." Girls laughed. They decided to set off on the way forward. After a dozen minutes they found their way to the small town. The place was little, houses were similar to the ones which were standing by the hotel. Shops were located in a few of them, mainly markets with a food and souvenirs for tourists. People walking on city streets were as dull as the ones which girls could see the day before. They seemed to be the elements of the landscape like lamp posts or stones lying by the road, equally devoid of their own will. Michiru approached some older woman.

"Excuse me, where I can buy some souvenirs?" The grandma pointed at one of buildings without any word and walked away. Green haired woman had been looking at her for a moment. She wanted to take out her mirror from inside the backpack and check the old lady. The intuition told her that she was something else than ordinary human. Sakiko came up her.

"Let us walk. Something interesting can there be."

They both entered the shop. The room inside wasn't too big. The counter on which a few objects lay was standing there and a seller woman who barely fit between it and huge bookshelves on which souvenirs were exhibited, was standing behind it. It was possible to buy a lot of thing there: postcards from the town, miniatures of temples and houses, albums about different parts of Japan, figurines portraying gods of happiness as well as toys for children coming from outside islands and a lot of other Chinese and American shoddy objects.

"How can I help you?" A seller asked with exaggerated sweetness.

"We're looking around with the friend..."

"I recommend these statuettes. They really bring good luck." Michiru took one of them.

"Really pretty..."

"Yes, I strongly recommend this purchase." There was something strange in the behavior of the woman.

"Tell me, did one of them bring you good luck sometimes?"

"Of course. I recommend these statuettes. They really bring good luck." Michiru put the figurine back.

"Is it true that Yeti turned up in these forests? Did you hear about it?" She asked something stupid intentionally.

"Very possible. I strongly recommend this purchase." The woman answered with a smile. Neptune decided to ask her about something completely stupid.

"Do you like to wear leather and give lessons of the upbringing to your husband with the help of a horsewhip?"

"Of course. I recommend these statuettes. They really bring good luck." The woman replied gladly. Sakiko didn't listen to this incredibly strange conversation. She was looking all around. Suddenly, something behind the window riveted her attention. She thought that she had noticed something familiar in the opposite shop.

"Michiru! It's Ichiban! He's there!" She shouted. She grabbed Michiru by the hand and ran out toward the boy. Both girls popped into the other shop. As it turned out, Sakiko's eyesight didn't betray her. Indeed Ichiban or somebody very similar to him was standing in the shop. He was looking at the image hanged on the wall.

"Ichiban! What are you doing here?" Black-haired girl touched him.

"We were worried about you!" The boy turned to her. He smiled widely.

"You probably mistook me for somebody. I'm not Ichiban." Michiru reached in the bag for her transformation's pen.

"We have beautiful surroundings here. I recommend the foot-walk to our beautiful temple." the boy in glasses said with a strange smile.

"Ichiban! What are you talking about! It's me! Sakiko! Don't you remember me?"

"You probably mistook me for somebody."

"Go with us. You'll certainly recall everything." She desperately tried to bring boy's memories back.

Neptune took the mirror out of the bag. The boy seeing it pushed Sakiko away and bolted to the exit. Michiru caught the girl saving her from the fall. Girls ran after the mysterious boy without a hesitation, but he was already on the other end of the town square. Girls followed him. Ichiban run behind a little, white building. Sakiko and Michiru found themselves there as quickly as they could. They looked around and saw a fence and walls of two houses neighboring with each other. It was logical that Ichiban couldn't escape anywhere. After a moment Neptune noticed the closed wooden door.

"He had to hide himself there!"

Sakiko ran up to the door not waiting for the reaction of her friend. She gained momentum and opened the door with a huge kick. Michiru was surprised by a force of her friend, but followed her without hesitation. Girls found themselves in a little room. It was very dusty, hot and stifling inside. Boxes and empty shelves were standing everywhere inside it. Unfortunately the boy was nowhere to be seen. It seemed as if he simply dissolved into thin air.

"What the hell is happening here?" Sakiko didn't hide her irritation. Michiru was observing her.

"I would like to know it." She whispered thinking not only about boy's disappearance but also about big strength of black haired girl.

Ruri and Kazusa stayed in the hotel and didn't intend to go anywhere, their plans were different from hiking on mountains. They were sitting in the room rented by the boy. The girl was looking out of the window.

"Listen Kazusa... It's so warm. Perhaps we'll look for some river in order to cool off."

"We'll leave this place soon. Sakiko and our new acquaintances spread throughout the area. Such a chance won't repeat itself." Kazusa came up to the girl. She turned red knowing what he was thinking about.

"What do you mean?" She asked but she knew the answer.

"Exactly what you think..."

"At least we agree." She replied gladly. She peeled off from the window and her friend drew the curtains. He came up to Ruri, embraced her and started kissing her. The girl broke free from his grasp. She ran to the door and locked it to prevent somebody from spoiling her a moment of pleasure. The boy approached her again. They kissed passionately. After a moment Ruri lay down on the bed and Kazusa followed her. They started kissing and touching fiery.

After return from the small town Michiru told Haruka about exactly all strangeness she noticed during her trip. When a night dawned, girls decided to make sure that their invisible enemy didn't kidnap anybody again. Michiru was sitting on a chair dressed in shorts and sleeveless shirt. She was holding the mirror thinking that it should give her a warning if something strange happened. Haruka was lying on a bed in pants and white T-shirt. She was reading some newspaper using the light of a bedside lamp.

"Now we're sure that something is wrong with this place." Haruka announced.

"Yes, sellers saying one sentence all the time, situation with this boy... Now we must wait until the opponent somehow reveals his or her presence." Michiru replied.

"You mean he'll kidnap the next person?"

"Yes. Or he'll sense that we're a threat for him and he'll attack us directly."

"And what if he doesn't? What if everyone disappear in front of our noses..?"

"I don't think that you want to resolve it this way."

"Why not? It'll be sufficient to provoke him. If we attack first, we'll have great chance of a fast victory." The blonde girl smiled.

"Provoke him?"

"For example we'll knock a few buildings down. Or attack some of his zombies in the city." Michiru put the mirror back.

"We cannot. We don't know whether these are his creatures or real people. I couldn't use my mirror on any of them." Haruka turned on her back.

"An unknown still remains in the form of the black beauty."

"Don't try to start this again. A next mystery associated with her appeared when she almost tore the door out from hinges with a single kick."

"And your mirror? Does it sense something?" Neptune took the mirror and touched it. She was looking at its surface reflecting the light of the desk lamp.

"Nothing. We must wait and be ready to act swiftly."

"Perhaps we'll kill the time?" The blonde proposed.

"And be ready to act swiftly... I said, you don't understand something." Girls started laughing.

Ruri was lying in a bed in the Kazusa's room. She was wearing a nightdress. The boy was sitting at a desk reading some book. He broke away from it when he noticed that his friend had opened her eyes.

"I see you can't fall asleep."

"The dreams won't come today. Perhaps it's your presence which works on me this way?"

"Perhaps you want to do this with me once again... like in the morning..."

"No, I don't have the willingness... I simply want to fall asleep but something doesn't let me to do it." Kazusa rose from his desk and sat down on the bed by the girl. She moved closer to him. He hugged her carefully.

"Why won't you return to Sakiko's room?" The boy asked.

"I cannot longer bear her presence, her eyes drilling right through you, eyes peeking into your soul, her pale skin in the light of Moon…"

"What are you saying Ruri? You're not yourself! After all you have always liked Sakiko. Why are you talking about her this way?"

"You don't understand it because you're spending too little time with her. I sometimes think that she isn't a human being. She's looking at you with her brown eyes and it appears to you that she's reading in your thoughts, that she knows about your deepest hidden secrets... she's as a witch, gloomy daughter of the night setting off for the hunt..."

The boy was very surprised by what Ruri said to him. He hugged her.

"You aren't feeling the best. Rest, try to fall asleep."

"You don't believe me, right? But I'm not lying. When I met her today on the corridor after what I did with you... she knew everything... she had to know every detail. She came up to me and asked whether I had spent the late morning well..."

"Damn, she asked this way because she's your friend. Girl, don't invent the false theory to it! She couldn't know about anything and even if she knows, after all she's aware that we love each other."

Tears appeared in Ruri's eyes. She got up pushing hands of the boy from herself.

"You're siding with her! And she's destroying my heart from inside! I'll escape from here! I cannot withstand knowledge that she's nearby and she's leaning against this wall with her pale skin!"

Ruri quickly came up to the door. Kazusa tried to stop her but she pushed him with all her might. The boy fell down to the floor. She slammed the door and found herself on the corridor. She didn't turn the lights on. Her walk was fast, but strangely unnatural. The girl went down the stairs to the ground floor and she headed for the door leading to nearby forest. One of maids was standing close by. When Ruri passed by her, the woman smiled ominously.

Darkness ruled in Sakiko's room. The girl was standing at the window holding hands on the sill. She was wearing pajamas: black shorts and black T-shirt. Cold wind and the moonlight was bathing her face. It was soothing but it couldn't wash away the anxiety lurking in the girl's heart, feeling of some danger was approaching her and her friends. She lowered her head and her raven-black hair fell on the face covering her eyes.

"Something will happen again..." She pressed fingers to the window's sill. After a moment she swept hair aside from her forehead with a fast move of the hand and headed towards the exit. She decided to do something other than waiting. She ran out to the corridor and looked around. Next she went up to a stairs leading to the ground floor. She noticed that Ruri had disappeared in the exit door. In the same moment Michiru goggled. She looked at the mirror. Haruka seeing change in the friend's behavior got up. Michiru took transformation's pen from a bedside table. The blonde smiled.

"Did he appear?" She asked.

"He appeared." Her beloved answered.

"It's about time." She gripped her pen to the transformation. Both girls quickly ran out of the room. "We're transforming."

Ruri was walking barefooted through the meadow. The pale light of the moon was falling on her slim body; the cold wind was blowing her hair and pajamas. Her eyes were empty, fixed on something in the distance, her mouth were whispering something incomprehensibly. She walked straight ahead in the direction of old forest. She looked as if she was sleepwalking. Sakiko ran out of the hotel. The wind blowing from nowhere was shaking her beautiful long hair. She was horrified; she wanted to help her friend as soon as possible.

"Ruri! Wake up! Shake it off! Can you hear me?" She screamed with all her might trying to stop the girl. She caught her by shoulders and slapped her face twice, but Ruri didn't react. She was still looking straight ahead and didn't control her own body. She broke free from black-haired girl's grasp and headed to meeting with her fate. Sakiko tried to stop her again. Unfortunately her legs rebelled against her. She staggered and fell down on grass. She tried to recover from a shock but she could not. She banged the earth with her fist. In darkness one could see the figure of the maid.

"You will fail girl..." She whispered. Sakiko felt dizzy. She fell that she was losing consciousness. The maid approached her. Suddenly the woman looked at the direction of the forest.

"No! Not her, not now! I'm not ready for the meeting with her." She turned away from the girl and then she spilt out in the darkness. Ruri was standing by the first trees of forest. Her face was deprived of any emotions. She seemed indifferent at what was supposed to meet her. Among the trees some shadow flashed. After a few seconds the moonlight portrayed the figure of the old, fat woman leaning on the gnarled cane. She glowered with the eyes full of hate at Ruri and later at the hotel and its surroundings. She was the same woman with whom Haruka and Michiru had met a few days earlier on the forest clearing. Sailor Neptune and Uranus were running in the direction of the forest. Michiru stopped for a moment at unconscious Sakiko's place. Fear for the life of her friend appeared on her face.

"What happened here!" Uranus asked.

"It's Sakiko... she is lying here!" She kneeled by the girl and put her head on her knees. She tested the pulse.

"What's with her?" Haruka asked again.

"She's alive, but she's unconscious. Her breath is calm." Michiru gently put girl's head on the grass. "I'm sorry Sakiko, I cannot stay." She whispered. Haruka looked at her.

"We're going!"

"Of course!" Neptune replied.

The old witch squawked incomprehensible spells raising her cane above the head. Ruri staggered. She closed her eyes and beads of sweat flowed down her head. The girl fell down on her knees. The old woman shouted her spells out even louder

"Stop!" Michiru's shout pierced the night sky. Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune appeared before the witch.

"Hold your tongue witch and leave this girl alone!" Haruka said.

"Or else we'll have to chase you away from here!" Michiru added. The witch wasn't upset with woman-warriors arriving. She recited texts in language known probably only to her. Uranus smiled.

"You asked for it. World Shaking!"

The ball of white light formed around the clenched fist of the blonde. The girl threw it toward the old woman. Witch seeing the charm approaching her protected herself with her walking stick. To Uranus' surprise, her spell deviated from its course and struck the earth a few meters farther from the woman. An explosion dropped off clouds of dust and dry mud in the direction of girls. Ground shook everywhere.

"Hsss." The witch hissed with a hate.

"You understand nothing stupid girls! Don't interfere in matters which are not yours!" The old person spat on grass and from the place on which her phlegm fell down black flies started flying out. During a few seconds a powerful swarm of these insects lined up. It flew in Sailor Senshi's direction with a huge buzzing sound.

"Deep Submarge!" Michiru formed the ball of the blue light and hurled it into insects. All flies were covered in the wall of water and fell dead on the meadow. Unpleasant sound of their wings ceased to exist. Haruka looked around herself. She noticed that the big-arsed witch was forcing her way through the thicket, she was trying to escape. She ran after her. Michiru heard Ruri's shouts. She quickly came up to her. The girl was kneeling on the grass, her mouth was moving as if she wanted to say something. Tears were flowing across her cheek.

"What happened? Ruri, shake it off!" Ginger girl didn't react. She extended a hand in the direction of the forest. Michiru looked in the direction which she appointed. As it turned out Kazusa was standing there. He was walking slowly, as if in a trance, he was the same as Ruri few minutes ago. Neptune left her friend and tried to come up to the boy. An intense wind knocked the girl over to the floor.

"You won't steal this person from me!" The wind carried someone's enormously loud voice. Strange darkness formed around the boy claiming him entirely. The penetrating Ruri's scream sounded all around.

"Idiots! Now they're angered! It's your fault that the soul of this boy as well as his body vanished for centuries!" The old woman screamed from bushes spitting in all directions.

"Wait! What did you mean witch?" Uranus was shouting trying to force her way through the tangle. She extended the hand in the direction of the woman. The old person waved the cane breaking branches of young trees standing in her way.

"Do not interfere in not your matters! I should punish you for spoiling my charms!"

Uranus noticed that the witch was disappearing in the darkness of the forest. Her eyes were covered by fog. When her eyesight improved, she noticed that before her a tangle of the branches formed and was becoming thicker and thicker with every passing second. There were so much of them that they obscured the moonlight. The girl was submerged in total darkness. She looked behind herself, felt cold all around her; great fear appeared in her soul. It turned out that where there had been a meadow and her beloved a moment ago, a tangle of branches which couldn't be pierced by light was stretching. Boughs surrounded her from every side was moving closer to her body with every passing moment. The frightened blonde took her sword out. She tried to cut coming branches off but there was too many of them, more and more with every moment. Black came inside the deepest corners of her mind and soul. The girl was opposing it, but she sank in the darkness quickly. She felt that she was in the place where there was nothing but her. She could hear her own voice whispering to her ears the same sentences over and over again: "you must be able to see through the lie. You must notice what the truth is. "

Sakiko regained consciousness. Her body was aching from the fall on the hard ground. Everything which she could see was indistinct and smeared. After a minute, the girl regained her sight. She didn't believe her eyes; she raised her head and looked all around. The view which she saw surprised her. There were no hotel and its gardens, there were no buildings and there were no lights of the small town in the distance. Dark forests stretched out all around. In the place where the hotel should stand there was some old, dispersing shack not inhabited for many years. The only lighting in this place came from stars and the Moon. Sakiko sat down on the grass. Reality started changing before her very eyes. The image smudged, surroundings waved. The girl noticed that some shape was bending over her. It was shouting something to her. She could not understand a single one word, because its speech reached her in the form of the colorful rain. Sakiko was gazing at it. She noticed green hair of Michiru blowing in the breeze. She felt the touch of her hand on herself.

"Michiru..." She whispered closing her eyes. When she opened them again it turned out that everything got back to normal. Hotel, its garden, lamps having spherical shape and lightings of the small town glimmering in darkness returned to its proper places.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Haruka found herself in completely black space, which seemed to stretch out without the end. The girl felt terrible cold on hands and the face. Absolute silence prevailed there; Haruka could hear every beat of her heart and the smallest movement inside her body. She lost the form of Sailor Uranus for unknown reasons; she was wearing brown trousers, the jacket, black shirt and the cross on her neck. It was really strange because she didn't even have these clothes in the hotel room. She was horrified; she didn't know what to do. Michiru figure and fear of what could happen to the girl after they lost contact appeared in her thoughts. She noticed some faint light. It was becoming more and more bright; it seemed to invite her to its inside. Uranus ran in its direction. Despite she was moving fastest she could, she thought that she was approaching it entire eternity. When she was already very close and the light became as great as her body, she noticed that it was assuming the shape of the girl wearing white dress. Her black hair was waving on the non-existent wind. When eyes of the blonde got used to the glitter, she recognized the face of the apparition.

"Ariel? What are you doing here?" The girl asked.

"I used the chaos to reach you crossing the barrier between worlds. I traveled time and space and the endless number of realities in order to give you a message. Haruka, leave your world full of pain and suffering. Leave the fate which causes you only continuous unpleasantness. Go with me. We will go to the place where nobody find us... Together we can change this world, all worlds, to better."

She raised the hand out to the girl and gave her a genuine smile.

"Quickly, I cannot talk to you longer."

"I cannot. Michiru is waiting for me. She's in danger; I must come back to her, irrespective of everything."

Ariel became sad.

"Goodbye Haruka, we will never meet each other again. Irrespective of what the Tearing will bring to us..." Specter of the young elf figure disappeared in the darkness.

"Raise the eyes over the lie!" Uranus heard a squawking voice of the old witch.

"Force your way through the charm of the illusion! See the world as it really is!"

"Fight the lie! See the truth!" Body of the girl was flooded by white, warm lighting. It was too bight for her, she closed her eyes. She opened them feeling a puff of wind on the face. As it turned out she was again in the forest. A few hours had passed, because it was already bright and the Sun was rising above the horizon. Haruka looked around herself. Forests were whispering around her and their green acted tranquilly on the girl. She noticed small lake steamed up with a fog and old, breaking down wooden house in the vicinity. The blonde realized that something was wrong. There was no hotel or nearby buildings, not a sign of Michiru and other persons. The girl became nervous.

"Michiru! Can you hear me? She was running around the forest clearing searching for the track of any elements of the small town. She stopped suddenly noticing the old woman standing on the shore of the lake. She became irritated very much and ran up to her.

"What did you do to me? Where did you take me! Where is Michiru!" The old witch didn't answer, didn't even turn around. Uranus jumped before her.

"These are your spells! Am I right? Where am I?"

"In the real world..." The woman replied.

"In the real world? What happened to the hotel? Where are Michiru and the others?" Haruka wanted answers.

"Don't talk to me this way. You should thank me that I helped you." the witch answered.

"Where are the hotel and friends of mine?"

"Heh... you won't give up... There is no hotel because it never existed. You and your acquaintances became victims of hateful women, you let lure yourselves to their illusion. I managed to drag you out from there... One day longer and you would become their next victim."

"Their? Who are they? What is happening there? You probably don't realize who I am, woman?" "Yeah, yeah... I know who you are... but it does not make any difference for them... even if they won't overcome your minds, because they cannot... they will remove you from their illusion as weeds from the perfect garden." Haruka clenched fists.

"I must come back there. Immediately! Michiru's still there! If something happened to her during this time..."

"No! I didn't take you from there just to give you back to them in a minute! Next night I will go for the girl provided they don't kill her earlier!" Uranus came closer to the old woman. She took her sword out.

"You must take me there! I'll drag her out from there immediately!" She said with a hate. The old person shrugged her shoulders.

"How are you going to get her out of the place about which you know nothing? How are you going to fight with the enemy you don't know?"

"Excellent! In that case I'll find the entry to this place alone, I managed it once."

"Because they wanted it!" The old woman shouted.

"Don't annoy me, witch! I can defeat you." Uranus' Sword glimmered with a bright light.

"And never be able to rescue your lover!" The witch hissed spitting on her legs. Haruka lowered the sword.

"Well. It'll be like you want. You'll tell me everything what you know about them. Later you're taking me to Michiru."

"Good, good..." The old woman glowered at her and asked to go after her toward the forest.

Michiru was looking all around trying to find the familiar Haruka's figure in the darkness, unfortunately without any success. She didn't feel the bond with the girl which she had from the moment they had met for the first time. It could mean that the blonde was somewhere very far or she didn't live. But Michiru didn't allow the second alternative.

"I'll find you and we'll leave from here together." She said trying to support herself. She knew that she must ensure security for Sakiko and Ruri, girls which were defenseless against the evil magic embracing this place. She ran up to first of them. Black-haired girl was feeling much better; she was sitting at Ruri's side and was embracing her gently.

"What's with her?" Neptune asked.

"She's in a state of shock. There isn't any contact with her. She could see how it had taken her boyfriend. It had her in its grasps also; it isn't obvious what damage it could make to her mind."

"How are you feeling?"

"I'm okay, Michiru... but when I was unconscious I saw something strange. I think I moved to different place."

"You'll tell me about it later. Now help me lead Ruri to her room." Ginger girl was kneeling on the grass. Her entire body was shaking. Her eyes were opened; streams of tears were flowing from them. Her mouth was moving, but she didn't manage to produce any sound.

"You knew that I was Sailor Neptune and Haruka was Uranus... all the time right?"

"I told you I had the gift of seeing the true nature of things."

Girls helped their friend to get up and they led her inside the hotel. All three entered one of guest rooms. Sakiko put Ruri on the bed. The girl curled up in a ball, she was shivering all the time. She pressed her hands to the bedding. Black-haired girl leaned against the wall. She swept hair aside from her eyes. Her forehead was poured with sweat drops.

"Michiru... I'm feeling terribly bad. I'm so weak... I think I'm going to faint..." She came up to the bed and lay down on it, beside her red haired friend. She pressed hands to bed and lost consciousness. Michiru also was feeling very bad. The image smudged in front of her eyes. She felt that her awareness was swimming away somewhere. With her last breath she managed to take her Mirror out.

"You won't get us so easily..."

"Submarine Reflection!" She shouted surrounding the space around the bed with a round barrier of magic water. She fell on the bed losing consciousness and her mirror fell down on the floor. The shadow of the being with three heads appeared on one of walls. It looked out as if it was observing the flickering barrier created by Neptune.

"This time you escaped…" It whispered with a voice coming from the other world.

"But there is a night tomorrow... and we have a time... a lot of time." The shadow laughed.

Haruka followed the old woman through the forest thicket. The witch trampled the path down removing branches standing on her way with a gnarled cane. Uranus was furious, she felt like fighting with the woman. She knew, however that she must preserve the peace and the cleanness of her mind, because although witch could be an enemy and cause of all evil in her surroundings, she was the only person able to take her to the place where Michiru was imprisoned. She didn't like prevailing silence, but every attempt to speak ended with putting the cane to her head and hateful look of the woman. After long minutes of walk they both reached a small glade on which the wooden house stood. It was very old, covered with a moss and well integrated into a nearby forest. There were a few wooden statues stuck into the marshy earth in front of the house showing terribly warped bodies and faces frozen in a cry of anger and fear. The witch ordered the girl to wait and she alone came up to the door of the cottage. She tapped it three times with her cane. The door opened with nasty creaking. The old person moved aside, she smiled asking Haruka to enter first. Uranus took her sword out in the case of a threat and crossed through the doorstep of the house. Darkness, stink of the damp, old place and the webs hanging from walls, the ceiling and the furniture inside the house greeted her. The girl was looking around carefully. She noticed bookshelves and shelves full of large jars, roots, books and objects which origin and role she didn't even want to guess. Something meowed. A black cat with one eye cuddled up to legs of the girl. Uranus felt unsteadily but she smiled to the animal. The cat was more and more pushy; the witch chased it away with knocking her cane off. The animal ran away somewhere behind wardrobes with a squeal.

"He is very irritating... but keeps me company every day." The old woman squawked.

"He didn't disturb me..." The girl said examining shelves.

"Heh..." The woman waved the hand.

"What did you spotted there? You have good eyes. It's the root from the world of dancing trees, singing a song about the missing unicorn... and this jewel case comes from the land of the eternal night placed in dead body of some god gone long time ago... and it's the book of spells which was ancient when Atlantis was born... and there is a large jar in which silicon dreams about electric sheep are whispering, I got it from King of Dreams himself - he also didn't resist my charm in my youth... as you see this place is full of unusual and precious things. Therefore there is no road to it, I must trample down new one every day... but you probably didn't come here to listen to stories about my house."

"You know well why I agreed to hear you out."

"Heh, sit down." The witch handed the small, three-legged wooden stool to the blonde. She sat down on a similar one. She spat to the fireplace and her saliva lighted a fire.

"Persons who created that forbidden place were very dear for me... a long time ago when they still weren't corrupted by the evil power... they were my three daughters. Don't ask where I come from and when I came to this reality, because you learn nothing from me. The fact is that I gave birth to triplets once, three girls, my three dearest daughters... I lived in the normal city then a long way from here, living or maybe pretending that I lived, the life of normal woman... I tried to break the connection with black magic towards which I had been attracted many years ago... When girls were born I thought that everything had already been all right, that I had left behind my former, bad life. In these times I saw no unusual things, my acquaintances from other realities didn't visit me anymore. Before having my daughters I decided to get rid of the entire magic sticking in me, I locked it up in this house; I stamped it with a seal of devil's skin and with the chain made by demons seething with a fire carrying false hopes. When girls developed normally and demonstrated no indications of oddities I thought that I had broken with my past entirely. I was happy being able to watch how they were growing up. I was wrong so much then... one day girls found the road to the black magic... they traveled around the city searching for books, people or any information about the magic... they were unhealthily interested in it, simply as if something called them from the other side, it tempted them with the power, it invited them into its embraces... I tried to do everything in order to turn them back from this way, but in a vain. One night they summoned the Triple Goddess using ancient manuscripts, Woman of the Night walking on forking roads during the full moon, having a lot of names, Hekate... during the ritual in which they made an offering for her of their menstrual blood, they summoned her to the Earth... The Moon was exceptionally big and beautiful that night... they cheated the Three Ladies offering them something false for the piece of their power... they became powerful, very powerful. The power closed in mortal bodies brought the frenzy to minds of girls. They thought that they were a Goddess, that they could arbitrate the life of ordinary men. They escaped from the house blotting all trails out behind themselves... in order to find them, and I had to do it because they were a threat to this planet... it was necessary that I came back to the former life, to become the Witch. So it happened...

Unfortunately when I found my children it was already too late. Using abilities stolen from Kindly Ones they tore the part of reality out from this place and created the zone in which their power was absolute... In order to stay powerful they had to steal souls from people... they fed on them. Using the memory and dreams of first killed people they created the illusion - the city and the inn into which they attracted passengers in order to take their life... Their illusion changed with passing years and every next human consumed by these devious witches. I have learnt how to enter their mirage and to drag their victims out from there. This was the only way I could fight them... to take food away from them and to weaken them and in the end they would be drained from the power they stole."

Haruka listened carefully to the story of old woman. When she finished, the girl got up. She was ready to act.

"Why won't the Goddess get back what they stole from her if she knows that she was cheated?" "Eternal beings are obeying principles about which we can know nothing..."

"Now when I heard this story out, will you help me to get to their illusion? Will you help me to rescue Michiru?"

"Ah, ah, ah... you are so stupid! Did you understand nothing from my history? You aren't able to defeat them in their realm! It is their world! They are almighty there! We can only weaken them through taking victims away from them! Nothing apart from that! If we tried to fight with them openly they would sweep us like dust!"

"I won't leave Michiru at the mercy of these monsters! I'll find a way to come back there, I'll rescue Neptune; I'll get her from their..."

"I told you that you don't have a chance with these witches! They don't have restrictions in their realm!"

"In that case, is there some way to take them out from there?"

"I have thought about it for years...it can't be done... they are connected with this place, they are there everywhere; they are that place..."

Uranus activated her magic sword. She grasped it strongly. The old woman sat more comfortably on the stool.

"Is there some way to defeat them, or even to weaken them, some way which gives a slight hope for the victory?"

"Eh... you are stubborn one and you want to get your own way. There is a way. Hekate has to be summoned in that realm and we must convince her somehow to get back the power stolen from her by my triplets..."

Haruka smiled.

"Yeah what are waiting for?"

"Eh, eh, hoick! Summoning the Kindly Ones is time-consuming and complicated spell! These witches will destroy me before I manage to say the first words..."

"And what if I and Neptune fight with Sisters while you'll be summoning the Goddess?" The old person spat to the fireplace. The fire churned up.

"It has the off-chance of the success..." the witch admitted.

"In that case..."

"Heh... you must really love her to risk the safety of the world for her".

"You can't even imagine how much. World could not exist if Michiru wasn't in it."

Haruka set off to the door, she opened them. More pleasant forest air enfolded her.

"You are so young..." The witch whispered. Both women left the cottage. Blonde girl looked back. The house of old woman was completely different than she remembered it. It was smaller, wooden; it was standing on two chicken legs. The witch waved the cane and her cottage came off in unknown direction.

"I said that I always destroy the road to my retreat. If we will survive I will have to trample down new one." She waved her cane several times. A bright passage opened before Uranus.

The Sun rose above the hotel and the weather slowly became as hot as the day before. Live in nearby houses was progressing drowsily, people were bumming about aimlessly along streets, as if dramatic events of the previous night were only someone's nightmare. Rays falling through the opened window of the hotel accommodation on Michiru's face roused her. She turned to the other side of the bed and saw that Ruri was beside her. The girl was lying motionless, she was breathing calmly. Neptune was glad that she had managed to fall asleep after the shock she had survived few hours ago. She got up, combed her hair. She looked around in search of her second friend. She was nowhere to be seen. Green haired girl looked out through the window, filled her lungs with morning air and then she heard water pouring in the bathroom. Because the door was opened, she came inside. She spotted black clothes and the underwear left about after the floor. Naked Sakiko was standing in the steamed up cabin of the shower. Water was pouring after her body and hair. Michiru leaned against a door case, looking at her friend. After a few minutes Sakiko turned water off and came out of the shower. Seeing a familiar face she was disconcerted, she immediately wrapped up with black towel.

"Hello, I can see that you already woke up."

"I didn't imagine you as an early bird."

"Oh well, appearances can be deceiving..." Sakiko came to up to green haired girl. She touched her own neck covering something by hand.

"Listen, I'm feeling a bit embarrassed when somebody is looking at me. Can you leave me for a moment, I want to get dressed."

"No problem." Michiru was embarrassed and left the bathroom closing the door. She sat down on the bed, picked her mirror up from the floor but she saw nothing inside it once again. Sakiko appeared in the room dressed. She looked at Ruri.

"She's calm. She's sleeping. We'd better not to wake her up, let her organism recover.

"You're right; however we must have a serious talk. About you and about what's happening inside this place."

"I agree Michiru, but not here... let us leave outside. A lake is the only place in which I'm feeling relaxed."

"All right".

Both girls left the room. One of maids stopped them nearby the stairwell. She had a very unpleasant facial expression.

"Excuse me, but I received a lot of complaints about your behavior from our guests."

"What?" Sakiko was surprised. Michiru was mutely waiting for the course of events.

"I must ask you to leave this hotel. If you don't do it I'll have to call security." Neptune reached for transformation's pen.

"Go hide somewhere, Sakiko." The woman noticed that girls were ready for the escape. She appeared near Michiru very quickly and knocked the pen from her hand with a strong kick. The object rolled after the floor to the other end of the corridor. Neptune grasped her opponent by her clothes and threw her against a wall with all her might. The woman got up, her dressing changed into black, close-fitting costume.

"Since you don't want to adapt to my paradise... you will be removed from it like a bacteria from healthy organism!" A few rooms opened in a flash. Women dressed similarly in black emerged from them.

"Remove these parasites!" The maid shouted. Four figures attacked the girls. Michiru avoided their blows, she even managed to throw down two opponents. Sakiko was standing in an out-of-the-way place all the time hesitating to act. Neptune wanted to hit the chin of one of assailants, but she blocked her blow. The second woman struck the girl in the stomach. Michiru hit the wall. The leader of women came up to her and slapped her in the face very strongly. Blood started flowing from the nose of green haired girl. Sakiko clenched her fist, her face expressed terrible anger. Her eyes started to change; pupils became thin like a snake's. She opened her mouth. Two sharp teeth sticking out beyond the line of others appeared inside it. The girl attacked women to help her friend. She threw the first woman down the stairs; then grabbed second one by her clothes and threw her away outside the hotel breaking the window. Two other assailants tried to defend themselves. Without any success, because might of Sakiko's blows were too great for them. Assailants butted against the wall breaking all their bones. The girl came up to their leader. She gripped her hand. When woman tried to defend herself, she broke her arm.

"This is for Michiru's stomach". After a moment she broke her second hand.

"This one's for her nose." The maid looked at her with a fear in eyes.

"What are you?" Sakiko laughed showing her vampire teeth.

"Nothing worse than you, certainly!"

After these words she broke the neck of the woman and put her on the floor. Michiru using the moment of the confusion ran to the transformation's pen. Unfortunately she was unlucky. Very fat woman who all the time loitered after the hotel leaped from the door. She captured the girl with her oily hands. She started constricting her. Neptune could not break free from her hug. She felt pain in the ribcage; she knew that one of her ribs had been broken. Sakiko seeing her friend in a danger again jumped on the fat woman. The lady hit her with her big paw. Black-haired girl lost her balance, but after a moment she regained it. She caught fat lady by her dress and threw her far from injured Michiru. She gathered speed and hit her in the face. Woman smashed stairwell balustrade up with her bulk and fell on the lower level. Sakiko being in a frenzy rushed after her not thinking of her own safety. She touched down on the fatso, and leaned above her. She plunged her teeth in woman's neck.

"Sakiko no! Sakiko, don't do it!" Michiru shouted. She was standing on stairs holding her ribs. Every word caused her pain and blood was still flowing from her nose.

"I beg you..." Black-haired girl left the fat lady alone. She got up and spat.

"What's this? What do they have in themselves! They aren't people..." She said. She slowly came up to Michiru and leaned against the wall by her.

"What have they done..." She slid down the wall and sat down on stairs. Neptune did the same thing. "Now you'll avoid the explanations no longer, who are you..." She whispered. She lost all her self-confidence; one can see that she felt bad.

"Yes... Do you feel really bad?"

"Worse... but if you'll bring me the pen to the transformation... In the Sailor Neptune form my wounds heal more quickly."

"Ok!" Sakiko came to the upper level and handed the pen to the girl.

"Neptune of Power Planets, Make Up!"

Michiru transformed into Sailor Senshi. Right after the transformation she clutched her rib feeling great pain. She sat down on the stairs again. The hemorrhage from the nose reduced but it didn't stop. Sakiko sat down by her.

"You said that you'd be ok."

"No, I said that I'd cure myself more quickly, not that I would heal immediately..." Girls didn't say word to themselves and after a moment Sakiko started the story.

"When I was thirteen... something, I don't have the slightest idea what it was... it bit me. I couldn't see exactly how it looked, it was certainly a man dressed in a black of the night... He did nothing more to me, he simply bit my neck..." The girl demonstrated two scars.

"I have them since that time. They're reminding me of what I was and what I became. After biting I started changing. The Sun, or any other dazzle annoyed me, my strength increased itself and one day I started feel hunger..."

"Hunger for blood?" Michiru asked.

"Yes, hunger for blood... Then I knew that I had become a monster. I was afraid of myself, I hated myself... I tried to take my own life but my wounds healed quickly... the life was a real nightmare for me. I escaped from my home and I had wandered for a few years trying to find my place on the Earth. As it turned out I'm not the real vampire, not like the one described in books. I can eat normal things; I can walk when there's the Sun, although I don't like it because it wounds my eyes... I'm growing old normally, today I'm 20 and probably I look 20... Blessed water, Christian crosses and other objects of this type don't cause me the pain... and from the aspen stake I'd most probably die like everyone else... I'm stronger than others, and..."

"Do you drink the blood of people?" Sakiko buried her face behind her hair.

"This does not work this way... I said I could eat normal food. Blood only causes I'm feeling better and I'm really strong. I can hold on long without drinking... at one time even two years... One day I resolved that I would track down this monster which changed me. I'll find it and I'll destroy it so that he'll never destroy life of other girl. Since then I've been traveling around the world to places where strange events happen and I've been hunting beings which exploits people as their targets. This way I found my way to this place... but this time the case surpassed me."

"Saki, tell me did you drank a blood of ordinary man?"

"Yes..." Sakiko didn't want to look at the eyes of her friend. She turned away her head.

"But they have always been evil people who deserved to be punished."

"If circumstances were different I would have to fight with you. You're a threat to people." Michiru noticed that something strange was happening to her friend. The girl cringed. She went into convulsions; beads of sweat were flowing down her face. She became very pale.

"What is happening to you?"

"It's the hunger... it always appears when I plunge teeth in the skin and don't drink even a droplet... that something didn't have any blood inside... I'm feeling terrible; you'll probably have to leave me behind..." Michiru came closer to her. She showed her nose and the trickle of blood flowing from it.

"Will it be enough for you?"

"Michiru, I cannot... you're my friend." A convulsion caught her, she clutched her belly.

"Think about it like a favor". I need you to solve the riddle of this place." Sakiko slowly moved her mouth to the Michiru's face. She looked at her, hesitated for a moment… then she pressed the mouth to the place in which the streak of blood was flowing. She started to drink, her pupils became thin, she closed her eyes. She moved the mouth along the red path. After a moment she turned away from her friend.

"It'll be enough..." She leaned against the wall. Neptune was looking at her with sad eyes.

"Thank you Michiru... thank you..."

Meanwhile upstairs, cracks of the bones were heard in bodies of black maids. Their skeletons knitted themselves, and their bodies came back to life and the plenitude of power. After a moment all women got up, their leader showed the door leading to Ruri's room. Black figures moved to their side. Sakiko and Michiru heard the piercing scream reaching from the upper the level.

"It's Ruri!" black haired vampire said.

"Something happened to her!"

Neptune quickly got up. She felt a stabbing pain in the side again; she tried to catch her breath. Sakiko helped her to stay.

"You are so cold, Sakiko." Michiru said surprised.

"I'll be better..." Girls went one level up. They noticed a dozen black people standing in the circle in the middle of the corridor. The maid, their leader was holding unconscious Ruri.

"And who will win this time?" She asked.

"Leave Ruri be!" Sakiko shouted.

"This girl doesn't have a clue about what is happening here!"

"Ha! ha! And perhaps I will remind you something?" The woman caught Ruri as if she wanted to break her neck.

"Don't do it!" Sakiko yelled even louder.

"Well. If you want her to be alive, come to the square of the small town. Your execution will be held there!" All persons jumped out of the window, the figure keeping Ruri also. Sakiko ran up to the window and looked outside it. It was no sign of black women or Ruri.

"Damn it, it'll be hard... we're weakened and there'll be probably hundreds of these lice in the square."

"Most probably, but we must go there." Michiru was determined. Fat lady was standing on the stairs, she slobbered terribly.

"You'll go nowhere! And as for you, you gloomy, black whore! I'll eat you for the dinner." Fat woman opened her mouth from which saliva was dripping wide.

"Deep Submerge!" Michiru formed the bullet of the blue light and hurled it at the monster. The fatso was submerged deep in the wall of water. She fell on stairs without consciousness.

"Now, we must leave from here before she recovers!" Neptune caught Sakiko's hand and came off to the exit from the hotel. Girls were on the road leading to the city. They still were feeling bad but they knew that they must cover the distance and rescue Ruri from hands of monsters ruling this place. Neptune stopped for a moment. She clutched her side.

"Michiru, if it hurts very much, please stay. I'll try alone..."

"No, I'm Sailor Senshi. A protection of people against such threats is my duty and my destiny. I'll only need to catch my breath..." After a moment Neptune cleared her mind. Both girls started their walk towards the settlements. The walk was tiresome, the day was hot and the girls were injured after the fight with their enemies. They knew that they had to go forward, they could not give up. Finally, they found themselves at the foot of the small town. The view which they found there filled them with a terror. The square was covered by people of different ages dressed in black: men, women, children and old men. Amongst the crowd Michiru noticed the seller from the shop, guests from the hotel but also laughing Kazusa and Ichiban. The maid was standing in the very middle of the assembly. Her two companions were keeping dazed Ruri.

"I welcome you in our wonderful paradise! It's pity that you must be driven out from it, you dirty sinners!" Sakiko clenched her fists. Neptune held her back with a sign of hand.

"Hold on, I'll try to surround Ruri with a protective field..." She took her mirror out. At that very moment a shapeless creature of black mass formed nearby girls. It quickly changed its shape into the figure of the fat woman who girls squared up in the hotel. She took the mirror from hands of Sailor Neptune with a fast move.

"Hee, Hee, what a beautiful mirror... I'll look at myself." Fat played with the talisman.

Neptune could not make any move in fear of the ginger girl's life. She was hit by someone. She felt sharp pain in her broken ribs and fell to the ground. Ichiban came up to her. Michiru realized that the boy had kicked her firmly a moment ago. The four-eyes grabbed her by the hair. He pulled her face to himself.

"Now you'll be mine, dyke. I'll demonstrate you how to be with the real man". Kazusa ran up to black haired Sakiko.

"I've never liked you misfit. But I have always wanted to check out how it's like... to fuck with such a freak!"

"My darling! Destroy them! Throw parasites out from our quiet region! Tear these weeds out!" The crowd started going in the direction of girls. The Ichiban hand reached under Michiru's skirt and Kazusa tried to tear clothes from black-haired vampire. After a moment eyes of everyone were blinded by huge glitter.

"Space Sword Blaster!" Light blade tumbled down in the direction of Ichiban. The boy covered himself, but in a vain. The weapon affected him. The four-eyes left Michiru, he walked away of few steps. After a moment it turned out that the blade had cut him in two pieces. The boy dispersed turning into the puddle of black liquid. Neptune smiled seeing the familiar figure of the short-haired blonde in the gleaming teleportation gate.

"Uranus!" The gate closed. Everyone noticed Haruka and the old witch keeping her company.

"Heh... Hoick!" The witch spat. After a moment two root grew from a ground nearby Ruri, they entangled the girl, sank below the ground with her and then they emerged from the surface at the foot of the old woman. Haruka ran up to the fat lady. She took a swing with the sword and incised the fatso into two even halves. Fat lady changed into bubbling, black liquid screaming frightfully. The blonde picked the mirror up from a grass and threw it to Michiru. She smiled to her.

"World Shaking!"

"Deep Submerge!" Two bright bullets soared up toward the black crowd. Huge explosions shook the surroundings. Demons were ripped to shreds. Sakiko freed herself from the embrace of Kazusa. She broke his arm and then hit him right in the middle of his belly with all her might. The boy was thrown toward the steel fence. He got caught on spikes sticking out of the fence and turned into black gunk hissing.

"The freak is able to defend itself". Sakiko announced.

"Fire Ball!" The witch shouted sending a few fiery bullets from her walking stick toward the maid and her retinue. Women were consumed by the fire and they turned into black powder. Michiru ran up to Haruka. The blonde hugged her firmly.

"I thought that I had come back too late."

"And I was afraid that I had lost you." Girls kissed.

"My beautiful work! How dare you to destroy it!" Everyone heard the triple voice reaching from everywhere. In the middle of the battlefield figures of three women appeared. The all were beautiful, they had golden, gleaming hair. Their dark blue patterned dresses were blowing on the breeze.

"We are the Triad and this place is our property!" Three women announced.

"You desecrated it; you destroyed my dolls which I have gathered together for years so diligently. We don't know what penalty impose on you for such an evil act. We hope that you will provide us with at least short entertainment dying".

"Uranus! Remember what I said you!"

"Of course, Witch, I remember everything". The blonde looked at Michiru.

"We must fight with these women. We must withstand longest we can."

"I still don't know what is happening here..." Green haired girl asked.

"Trust me, I'll explain you everything as soon as everything ends. Now we must fight. Are you with me!

"As ever Haruka, to the very end". Sailor Senshi were ready for fight with the very dangerous enemy who were able to control every aspect of their artificial world.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

The square of small illusory town looked like the battlefield. Its area was entirely contaminated by puddles of black gunk remaining from all destroyed opponents. On one side of the square three witches, who named themselves The Triad were standing, creators and absolute queens of the city inside the illusion and its inhabitants. On the other side, Ruri, black-haired Sakiko and the old witch who revealed her name to nobody were present. Between two groups Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune were ready to fight against the Triad and protect the remaining people.

"Frail girls... do you really think that you can harm me in the place which I rule? You are so stupid..."

All three witches said these words.

"Prepare yourselves for death." They added with a triple voice.

"We'll see who'll destroy whom." Haruka laughed.

Meanwhile the old woman ordered girls to approach her. Ruri looked like her mind was somewhere else and because of that Sakiko grabbed her by hand and did as the witch told her.

"Summoning of the Kindly Ones is the only way to defeat the Triad. These devious witches stole part of Hekate's power... convincing her to get back what belongs to her will be our task..."

"Hekate, Kindly Ones... I heard about them. She's lunar deity." Sakiko guessed what the witch meant. "Recitation of the old spell by three aspects of the life of woman is a way to summon her: the Girl-Virgin, the Mother and the Old Woman..."

"I'm a virgin, so I can perform the role of the first aspect." Sakiko answered. She continued.

"As regards the old woman..." She tried to say something but the witch hushed her up.

"Yes, yes... I will fulfill the role of her." She squawked,.

"What about the mother?" Vampire asked. The witch looked at Ruri who was still without any contact with reality. She spat on her dress.

"Yeah... you carry a new life... you are a mother, girl..."

"I..." Witch's words seemed not to reach Ruri's mind.

"Yes girl... you are pregnant..." Saying these words the old woman spat on her hands.

Meanwhile Uranus and Neptune geared up for the clash with the Triad. Women launched three pairs of lightning from their hands. The glowing, energetic snakes were wiggling like some sentient beings. Sailors avoided the attacks with an ease; it was evident that witches were only playing with them. The girls decided to counterattack.

"World Shaking!"

"Deep Submerge!" Sailor Senshi dashed energy bullets in the direction of women. They reached their targets but unfortunately they didn't damage them. Witches protected themselves with too strong magical shield.

"Damn it!"

"They are strong!" Sailors commented.

The old woman poured ash gathered in her hands on Sakiko's face and later on Ruri's. She emptied the remnant of ash out onto herself. She started to recite the ancient charm's words.

"Hekate striding along the crossroads during the Height, Divine Hekate who shows herself for us in the form of the Courteous Women, always kind for us: Virgin, Mother, the Old Woman... we are calling you, we - your obedient servants... you who are simultaneously every stage of our life: the Virgin, the Mother, the Old Woman... we are calling you, arrive carried by the moonlight... We who are following you in every stage of our life: the Virgin, the Mother and the Old Woman...

"Virgin" Sakiko said.

"Mother..." Ruri mumbled.

"Old woman! Arrive Kindly Ones! Enlighten us with your wisdom!"

Triad sensed that her opponents were trying to summon Hekate. She got scared. She tried to direct some spell against them.

"Michiru! We must summon our most powerful attacks. We have no choice!" Haruka proposed.

"Yes, we must..."

Girls spread hands. They seemed to meditate. Neptune's body started glowing with blue color and Uranus' with gold shine. After a moment magic objects appeared before girls: Michiru's violin made of emerald and Haruka's huge sword, much bigger than her talisman. Woman-warriors caught their new weapons.

"Neptune Violin Tide!" When Neptune said these words rivulets of water gushed from her violin. They formed high wall of water from which tens of blue balls, looking like spells 'Deep Submerge' flew toward witches.

"Uranus Space Turbulence!" Saying this spell Uranus incised the space before her with the sword. From the shining red rift a plenty of yellow balls, looking like spells "World Shaking" flew out. All headed towards the Triad. The rain of green and yellow energy bullets flooded women who were trying to defend themselves. They didn't expect such power, they didn't prepare for it. Their barrier was shattered and they were scattered in all directions.

"It came off!" The blonde was glad. The darkness came up from nowhere. Black clouds covered up the Sun and the sky; large silver full Moon appeared on it.

"Yes... it's Hekate! Kindly Ones answered my call!" The old person shouted from joy. A shadow of the woman, and maybe three women appeared on the face of the moon. Nobody could guess what kind of the phenomenon they witnessed.

"Who is calling us on with the help of old, forbidden rituals?" Hekate started to speak.

"I, Woman of the Night... Your faithful servant..." The old witch said.

"What do you need, woman? Do you have something which can interest us?" She asked with voice sounding from all four sides of the world.

"No... I have something what was taken from you and I want to give you this thing back."

"What kind of thing?"

"My daughters, they have cheated you one time, Kindly Ones… They got the part of your power from you in exchange for something worthless... they exploited this power in your name to sow evil on this planet... now you can punish them, Great Lady". Three witches were horrified, they knew that they had to quickly become operative or else they would be finished. They got up and took hold of one another's hands.

"We know about it very well. But they didn't break any rules, the spell was conducted correctly, we can do them nothing... we are observing them all the time, we will become operative when they commit a crime which gets our rage on them... until they have family blood on their hands we can do nothing, it isn't possible to change the rules..." Hearing this words the old woman felt into pensive mood.

"Family blood, that's it... they have let me take victims away from them for all these years... in order not to anger the Kindly Ones..."

In the same moment the Triad threw in Uranus and the Neptune's direction couple of energy bullets. The old woman knew that she had to act quickly. She jumped ahead of girls; she covered them with her own body. The cane silently fell down on a grass. The witch with burning clothes fell down in the vicinity of woman-warriors.

"Why did you do it?" Haruka asked.

"They have family blood on their hands and now Hekate gets back what they stole from her..." She closed her eyes. After a moment her body was caught on fire and turned into an ash very quickly. The shadow of three Courteous Women fell on the Triad. Witches hid their face in their hands feeling great terror.

"Three mortal women took what have should never belonged to them... they cheated us, Hekate insidiously. Adopting our power and not doing any good for us in exchange... Now the hour of the truth have come... killing their mother they placed us on the path of a revenge. It'll be fulfilled in the future but before it happens… we Kindly Ones will get back what was ours..."

The entire space was flooded by the lunar light. Ruri covered her eyes. Sakiko smiled. She had never felt so well before. Neptune and Uranus observed everything attentively and with an anxiety. The blue lighting enveloped the Triad, Witches started growing old very quickly. They became grey, creased and hunched. Forest, nearby houses, the road, the stream and the hotel were covered by blue flames. Haruka and Michiru ran up to remaining girls and approached them to protect them. The fire already consumed the majority of the scenery and the sphere created by the Triad ceased to exist. Girls opened their eyes. There was no city, no road or the Moon. Darkness was enveloping everything. Sailor Senshi were standing in their normal, civilian clothes. Michiru wounds healed up, the girl felt well. Sakiko was holding Ruri, who was cuddling to her and crying. Looking at the direction of the hotel, girls noticed their cars standing by the breaking down hovel near the lake.

"So it's the real place". Haruka announced.

"It's terribly sad..." Michiru added.

"But at least it's not an illusion." Friends decided to come back to their cars. They heard some rustle in bushes and noticed three, very old and hunched witches forcing their way through the tangle.

"It's the Triad! Perhaps we should..."

"No Haruka... they're old, crazy women now... they are a threat to nobody". Michiru calmed her down.

"Probably you're right."

"Hekate worries me more. Who she really is, what abilities does she have? I'm afraid that we will hear about her again. I don't like when somebody such powerful is hiding in the shadow and playing with such a perilous magic handing it to everybody who ask".

"We must be vigilant and ready for the fight, if such a necessity occurs".

"You're right Haruka. We'll be ready for her. And we'll defend the planet even against somebody such powerful".

Girls were preparing for a departure. Michiru was standing by Sakiko and Ruri, Haruka was already in the car.

"I'm happy that I got to know somebody like you…" Sakiko said.

"Are you sure that you want to go there? Perhaps if you went with us we'd find some place for you and you'd start a new life." Michiru had a proposition for her.

"No... I'll come back with Ruri to her family. I'll take care of her, she's still in a very bad state. Later I'll set off to find the one who did it to me again."

"I understand... Remember, if you're in Tokyo you'll know where to look for me."

"Yes, thanks for everything... one more time..." Girls hugged themselves. Michiru noticed tears in her new friend's eyes."

"I hope we won't meet as enemies." Neptune thought. Sakiko got into Kazusa's car together with Ruri. For the last time she looked at Michiru. The green haired girl looked at her deep, brown eyes again and felt the same emotion as in the moment when she saw her on the side of the road for the first time."

"I wish you happiness, Sakiko." She whispered.

"Hi! Michiru... when you already fell out of love, can we start our journey?" Haruka joked. Green haired girl didn't like Haruka's jokes.

"I'm going... I'm coming... please don't be sarcastic because of this girl. I don't like when you're envious."

"Ok, I'll be silent all the time. You have my word". Friends laughed. They heard a rap at the door of the car. Haruka looked at the direction from which it came from. The witch was standing there, she smiled keeping her cane.

"Are you alive?" Haruka was surprised.

"After all we could see..."

"Eh... I have already managed to cheat the Death more than once... but will you be courteous enough and give an old woman a lift to home?"

"But your house is in the forest..." Haruka was surprised.

"Oh well, you learnt nothing... each time I must trample the way home down... this time it will be leading across the street."

"Yeah okay, get to the car!" The old woman settled on the back seat and the car started to move. After several dozen minutes of the road it reached a small town. The witch ordered them to stop nearby one of houses. It was big, surrounded by pretty gardens.

"It's here! Thank you!"

"Here? Your house was ..."

"What you can see is only the road leading to it; its exterior is changing as well as the path. The real house is inside the door." When the old witch disappeared in the building, girls moved into the way forward.

"Look, she has the satellite and the Internet..."

"Haruka would you like to stay in some hotel with satellite and the Internet?"

"Yes, provided it won't be enchanted."

"In that case would you like to take a shower together with me?"

"I'm dreaming of nothing else!"

THE END


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